Airport month record
BOSJAN
Boston Logan International in January 2026
- Departures
- 10,298
- Month
- January 2026
- National, same month
- 79.2%
- Carriers
- 10
Historical statistics for January 2026, not live status or a forecast for this year’s January. For today’s conditions at BOS, see live FAA status.
BOS in January carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 7.5% of scheduled flights never operate, against 4.7% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, close to three flights in four arrive on time, worth a C− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 10,298 flights, of which Southwest Airlines flew 421 at 83.1% on time.
Southwest Airlines is the most reliable of the six carriers covered here at 83.1% on time across 421 flights.
Key figures
On time
73.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 9,506 completed departures
Avg delay
78 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
7.50%
Nationally in January: 4.71%
Whole year
75.6%
BOS across all twelve months
These figures cover 10,298 departures from Boston Logan International in January 2026. On time means an arrival less than 15 minutes after the scheduled gate time, the DOT's threshold, and the national comparison uses every US departure in the same month rather than the whole year.
Against the year
January next to BOS's other months
Against BOS's own year, January ran 2 points worse than the twelve-month rate of 75.6%, which makes it number ten of twelve months, best first. Cancellations are where January stands out: 7.50% of scheduled departures were called off, 2.8 times the airport's rate across the year. Either side of it, December ran 68.7% on time and February 74.8%, so this month sits in line with its neighbours.
| Month | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2025 | 12,912 | 70.9% | 82 min | 4.07% | C− |
| August 2025 | 12,461 | 81.4% | 69 min | 1.00% | B |
| September 2025 | 11,597 | 75.7% | 73 min | 1.35% | B |
| October 2025 | 12,647 | 73.9% | 75 min | 1.51% | C |
| November 2025 | 11,385 | 78.0% | 75 min | 2.76% | B |
| December 2025 | 11,248 | 68.7% | 71 min | 1.69% | C |
| January 2026 (this page) | 10,298 | 73.6% | 78 min | 7.50% | C− |
| February 2026 | 10,232 | 74.8% | 73 min | 8.15% | C− |
| March 2026 | 12,299 | 74.1% | 69 min | 2.69% | C |
| April 2026 | 12,626 | 79.3% | 62 min | 0.31% | B+ |
| May 2026 | 12,694 | 79.4% | 60 min | 0.61% | B+ |
| June 2026 | 12,683 | 76.6% | 72 min | 1.77% | B |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave BOS in January
Departure time is the single lever a traveller controls, and it moves the odds more than most people expect. Each bar below is the on-time rate for flights scheduled to leave inside that window, across 10,000 flights.
- 5am–8am2,046 flights76.7%
- 8am–11am2,200 flights75.2%
- 11am–2pm1,771 flights71.8%
- 2pm–5pm1,683 flights73.8%
- 5pm–8pm1,983 flights70.8%
- 8pm–5am615 flights71.2%
Scale runs 60% to 80%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The early departures do better, though not dramatically: 76.7% on time for the 5am–8am window against 70.8% for 5pm–8pm. Worth taking if the schedule allows, not worth an extra connection. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 2,200 flights scheduled in it.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 82.1% on time and Monday the weakest at 56.9%. 25 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines ran best at BOS in January
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Southwest Airlines arrives on time 83.1% of the time; JetBlue Airways manages 62.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 2,626 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airways | 2,647 | 80.0% | 72 min | 8.88% | B− |
| JetBlue Airways | 2,626 | 62.8% | 74 min | 7.27% | D− |
| Delta Air Lines | 1,903 | 73.4% | 89 min | 6.67% | C− |
| American Airlines | 1,262 | 77.4% | 95 min | 8.72% | B− |
| United Airlines | 888 | 79.9% | 64 min | 5.86% | B− |
| Southwest Airlines | 421 | 83.1% | 51 min | 4.28% | B− |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 187 | 65.1% | 89 min | 9.63% | C− |
| Envoy Airthin sample | 147 | 80.0% | 91 min | 8.16% | B− |
| Alaska Airlinesthin sample | 137 | 69.3% | 55 min | 5.11% | C− |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 63 | 52.5% | 70 min | 3.17% | F− |
Republic Airways cancels 8.9% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
Route by route
Busiest routes out of BOS in January
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BOS to DCA · Washington | 754 | 75.3% | 82 min | 9.55% | B− |
| BOS to LGA · New York | 543 | 80.9% | 86 min | 9.58% | B− |
| BOS to ORD · Chicago | 500 | 70.2% | 72 min | 6.20% | C− |
| BOS to JFK · New York | 482 | 75.6% | 72 min | 8.92% | B− |
| BOS to MCO · Orlando | 404 | 65.4% | 71 min | 5.69% | C− |
| BOS to LAX · Los Angeles | 373 | 67.8% | 70 min | 5.63% | C− |
| BOS to PHL · Philadelphia | 365 | 78.7% | 112 min | 7.40% | B− |
| BOS to ATL · Atlantathin sample | 343 | 72.2% | 81 min | 7.29% | C− |
| BOS to SFO · San Franciscothin sample | 313 | 72.8% | 71 min | 4.47% | C− |
| BOS to MIA · Miamithin sample | 305 | 75.9% | 71 min | 7.21% | B− |
| BOS to FLL · Fort Lauderdalethin sample | 303 | 57.2% | 84 min | 5.28% | D− |
| BOS to EWR · Newarkthin sample | 297 | 82.5% | 80 min | 7.41% | B− |
| BOS to CLT · Charlottethin sample | 291 | 80.6% | 109 min | 11.00% | B− |
| BOS to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample | 287 | 77.9% | 82 min | 11.50% | B− |
| BOS to DEN · Denverthin sample | 259 | 72.7% | 53 min | 3.86% | C− |
| BOS to BWI · Baltimorethin sample | 239 | 88.4% | 73 min | 6.28% | A− |
| BOS to PBI · West Palm Beachthin sample | 219 | 54.2% | 85 min | 7.31% | F− |
| BOS to TPA · Tampathin sample | 204 | 73.3% | 70 min | 6.37% | C− |
| BOS to BNA · Nashvillethin sample | 183 | 76.8% | 60 min | 8.20% | B− |
| BOS to RSW · Fort Myersthin sample | 179 | 56.8% | 68 min | 5.03% | D− |
| BOS to SJU · San Juanthin sample | 170 | 58.9% | 75 min | 11.18% | D− |
| BOS to RDU · Raleighthin sample | 170 | 75.8% | 75 min | 10.00% | B− |
| BOS to PHX · Phoenixthin sample | 169 | 75.0% | 79 min | 7.69% | B− |
| BOS to IND · Indianapolisthin sample | 168 | 83.4% | 134 min | 6.55% | B− |
| BOS to DTW · Detroitthin sample | 167 | 75.3% | 109 min | 7.78% | B− |
Delay causes
What held BOS up in January
Carriers report a reason for every delay minute they cause, in five DOT categories. The split below is by minutes, not by number of flights, so a handful of very long weather delays weighs as much as many short ones. It covers 195,000 reported delay minutes.
- 34%Carrier
- 30%National Airspace System
- 30%Late-arriving aircraft
- 6%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
The practical consequence: the 5am–8am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 76.7% on time here. The split is drawn from 194,528 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 7.50%, against 4.71% nationally. That is roughly one flight in twelve cancelled outright. A cancelled flight is invisible in every on-time figure on this page, so the punctuality numbers above describe only the flights that actually operated.
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 10.8% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 7.6% nationally. A 45-minute layover does not survive that, and no amount of walking quickly changes it. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
What to do with this
Flying from BOS in January
For a January trip through BOS: plan on this being one of the airport's harder months. The 5am–8am departures held up best at 76.7% on time, and with 10.8% of arrivals an hour or more late, a connection here deserves more slack than the same trip in August would.
Related
Where to go next
- Boston Logan International (BOS), the whole year
- BOS in July70.9%
- BOS in August81.4%
- BOS in September75.7%
- BOS in October73.9%
- BOS in November78.0%
- BOS in December68.7%
- BOS in February74.8%
- BOS in March74.1%
- BOS in April79.3%
- BOS in May79.4%
- BOS in June76.6%
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.